We'll Meet Again

Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick

Kate McQuiston

Description

Unique and often startling encounters between music and the moving image in the films of Stanley Kubrick are trademarks of his style; witness the powerful effects of Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" in 2001: A Space Odyssey and of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in A Clockwork Orange, each excerpt vetted by Kubrick himself. We'll Meet Again argues that, for Kubrick, music is neither post-production afterthought nor background nor incidental, but instead is core to films' effects and meanings. The book first identifies the building blocks in Kubrick's sonic world and illuminates the ways in which Kubrick uses them to support his characters and to define character relationships. It then delves into the effects of Kubrick's signature musical techniques, including the use of
texture, form, and inscription to render and reinforce psychological ideas and spectator responses. Finally it presents case studies that show how the history of the music plays a vital and dynamic role for the films. As a whole, the book locates Kubrick as a force in music reception history by examining the relationship between his musical choices and popular culture, and reveals the foundational role of music in his filmmaking.

We'll Meet Again

Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick

Kate McQuiston

Table of Contents

PART I THE ANATOMY OF THE KUBRICK SOUNDSCAPE1 Language, Lyrics, Voice and Sound2 Drawing Lines and Crossing Borders: Musical Climates, the Diegetic-Nondiegetic Border andVoice-Over Narration

PART II MUSIC-CINEMATIC TOPICS3 Mysterious Music with Invisible Edges and The Emergence of Musical Form in The Shining4 Reimagining Music in Barry Lyndon5 The Mutual Inscription of Music and Drama

PART III WE'VE MET BEFORE: FAMILIAR PIECES AND THEIR HISTORIES6 Evolution and Amnesia in the Soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey7 Musical Dialectics and The More Troublesome Beethoven8 Kubrick's Spin on Max Ophüls and the Ineluctable
Waltz